Covid response doesn't match the virus

One thing that's set uneasy with me since January is the global response to Covid-19. The response has done so much more harm than the virus so far. But even if you think it is right to act drastically to "flatten the curve" the approach taken by the US government doesn't seem to match that. The actions don't seem to be focused on reducing or minimizing harm at all. I'm using this post to illustrate my points, and why I am skeptical. I'm going to use a wide variety of sources so as to minimize people who only trust selective news sources.

First, let's look at the numbers. The mortality rate for covid seems to vary from source to source and day to day. We have to understand how that number is arrived at. We are pre-selecting for people tested for covid, people who are sick enough to go to the hospital. If you aren't a politician or a celebrity, you aren't being tested if you are not showing symptoms. So the mortality rate for covid is primarily based on people who are sick enough to go to the hospital. We don't do that with the flu.

If we treated the flu the same way, the numbers would be startling higher. Let's look at the last two years of data from the CDC and count the numbers the same way as they are counting for covid. For last winter, which the CDC classified as a typical season, the mortality rate would be 9.5%. For the year before, which was a very active season due to H1N1, it was 8.2%. Those numbers exceed most current estimates for covid. Between those two years the US death toll was 140,000 people.

Does that mean we shouldn't act to minimize the harm caused? Certainly not. However, the US government response seems to act to increase the harm and have used the media to convince much of the populace to be compliant and complicit in perpetrating this harm. They are playing on people's fear and people are then making choices based on fear. There are even calls now from government to turn in your neighbor if they aren't being properly compliant! When did a government asking citizens to snitch on their neighbors result in a positive outcome? I certainly can't think of one. This is red scare levels of panic.

So as we review each of these actions, I want you to ponder the following questions:
Who benefits from this action?
Who is harmed by this action?
Will this action prevent anyone from contracting the virus?

In St Louis in mid March, the mayor announced that police in the city would no longer respond to break-ins, burglaries or auto theft. People were welcome to call in and submit information for a report over the phone but no officer would respond. St Louis wasn't the only city to do this, similar announcements have been made in Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Atlanta, Portland, Seattle, Louisville and the entire Michigan State Police just to name a handful.

Who benefits from this action? From my perspective it's police, who don't have to do much of their normal work, and criminals, who know they can commit thefts with a greatly reduced chance of getting caught. But hey- coronovirus!

Oh, but St Louis city kept it's traffic division running in a ["business as usual"(https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/st-louis-police-traffic-division-quarantined-after-sergeant-tests-positive/article_02fd9519-c6af-523b-ad6a-d25f01fd5ffc.html) mode well past the date that police stopped responding to people's car getting stolen. From that article- "They directed offices to continue routine traffic stops". Wow. So maybe city revenue was the benefit here.

On March 1st, the Surgeon General of the United States told people to stop buying and using masks. Contrast this against countries like Japan and China who suggested everyone should wear a mask. Meanwhile, other federal agencies were instructing their employees to stock up on masks, medicine and foods. A different rule for the government workers than the rest of the country seems rather odd.

Who benefits from this? Obviously any government workers who heeded these instructions.
Who is harmed by this? Everyone who listened to the Surgeon General.

The federal government then changed it's story, saying that regular folk shouldn't buy masks because we need them for people who work in hospitals. But now we see lots of stories where nurses are told they can't wear masks because it makes patients nervous. I personally know one such hospital nurse in Chicago whose department was told this.

Major news media companies (run by billionaires, mind you) have been running horror stories non-stop. In fact, you can't even go on YouTube now without being promted to go look at covid stories as well as having them show up in your feed. The negative coverage is being crammed down people's throats in every way possible. Let's look at my YouTube feed as an example:

On my top row is pretty typical stuff that I enjoy on YouTube. A metal band, a firearm commenator, a farm channel and tour of a Swedish airgun factory. All stuff I would likely enjoy. But look what is inserted below- all covid stories. And look at the headlines:
Coronavirus outbreak Is Going To Get Worse!
Memo to paramedics show the Grim Reality
Coronavirus is not the flu, It's Worse
And lastly, the president talking about it, which may be the worst of all! :-)

The doomsday headlines and negative tones are litteraly being shoved in my face when I just want to enjoy some screamy metal and a nice Swedish factory tour. It's so pervasive it's become a disease of it's own. Newscasts are even worse. If any industry should stay at home, it's modern news media.

So who benefits from a constant barrage of negative news? Anyone who wants us fearful and negative.
Who is harmed by this? Everyone. Being constantly innundated with negativity is bad for us as a species.

So that opens up to one of the biggest actions by different government authorities- instructing people to stay at home, or shelter in place, or even quarantine themselves. Government agencies have shut down "non-essential" businesses. The list of what is essential and what isn't is very interesting. Most states allow liquor stores to stay open, but instruct doctors offices to cancel elective surgeries, like hernia or orthopaedic procedures. Bars are closed, as are restaraunts with dining rooms. You can't be open if you cut hair or sell clothing. Most stores in my immediate area are closed, only liquor stores, quickie marts, grocers and hardware stores are open for the most part.

This means that everyone who works in retail and many people who work in the service industry (food and drink) are out of work. Lots of these people rely on tips as a significant or even majority of their salary. As well, many people in the food industry get their big meal of the day at work. Being out of work means they lose their tips as well as a major (or sometimes only) meal each work day. This can be devastating.

Due to state and local governments shutting down businesses, the United States has the highest unemployment rate we have ever had. Government action has forced people to not work. Ponder the harm that has done. The harm extends beyond the people who won't be able to afford rent. The harm goes beyond the restaraunts that will never open again. The harm goes beyond the chain stores and independent boutiques and salons that will be out of business. The harm goes beyond the people who can't afford to eat. This is already snowballing to include work that hasn't been forced to shutter.

Auto sales are down 25% in March and 9% for the year. 7 million Americans are so far behind on loan payments already they are likely to have their automobiles repossesed. How will they get back to work when they lost their car because they couldn't make the payments while the government forced them out of work? How many people will lose their jobs as auto mechanics, car builders and car salesmen? That will then bleed into companies that make the car parts, some of which are the last major factory in a small town. Stopping people from working is stopping the economy, and the effects are quickly becoming widespread and brutal to a great many Americans.

And while these small, independent businesses are being shut down, what company is thriving? Amazon for one, run by one of the richest men in the world- a man who made billions peddling cheap Chinese crap to feed consumer culture. A man who encourages people to place spy devices in their homes, and then sells the information gathered. Or gives it to police freely. Amazon is benefitting greatly from this shut down of small businesses. How many people who worked in small stores, working for the American dream are going to end up working in a soulless Amazon warehouse after this?

The best estimates I have seen suggest infections will peak in late May or June. And since we are working so hard to flatten the curve, we are extending the duration that significant people will be affected. Shutting down companies for months will damage the workforce and the economy in irriparable ways. The middle class and working poor will be punished and the ultra-wealthy rewarded. The effects will be generational, doing harm much longer than the disease itself.

The tremendous stock market drop, caused first by panic spread by sensationalist, fearmongering major media companies, then by the shutting down of so many businesses and so many people out of work, will also have lasting effects. It's damaged the ability of the retired to live a life once planned, as retirement accounts and pensions have to deal with the drop in asset value. Certainly, the market was due for a drop, but the scope was greatly increased by both the panic and government action.

As well, middle class people who once thought they could retire on their savings have been greatly affected as well. The scope of this drop will likely require tens of millions of people to work additional years before they can retire. What is the value of that, years of a person's life to recover value lost? What is that value multiplied by the millions of middle class people damaged?

So the federal government comes to the "rescue" of the people for the very problems it created. After much political grandstanding and pork added, a Stimulus bill was passed. It took a bit of extra time to get past Nancy Pelosi, who wanted to add in the full 1,400 page text of the New Green Deal, but it was passed eventually. Much attention has been paid to the direct payment stimulus to people making $75,000 or less, each who will get $1,200. However, that direct stimulus to people is only $300 billion of a $2.2 trillion dollar bill. That's not even 15% of the funds. So where does the rest of handouts go? This is a great infographic showing just that.

So let's go down the list:
$153 billion to public health. That seems pretty reasonable.
$45 billion to student loan forgiveness. Maybe you support this, maybe you don't. Personally I find the idea of asking taxpayers who either paid for their college or didn't or couldn't afford to go to college to pay the college bills of others objectionable. But this is worse than that even, because it only applies to government employees and non-profit employees. Some citizens are more equal than others in this measure.
$260 billion to unemployement This will help families eat and stay in their homes, but it's taking away the pride of a former worker and replaces them with a serf on the dole. This will have lasting harmful effects on the middle class and working poor.
$500 billion to large corporations This is presposterous. It's giving a hand out to the very companies that buy congressmen.
$377 billion to small businesses Notice that this line items is loans, while the above is handouts.
$339 billion to governments Again, governments get more than the people. Shameful.

The stimulus bill doesn't include the $700 billion in "Quantitative Easing" offered to financial institutions. Again, the big banks get way more than the people.

What is the end effect of this massive giveway? What do we get for the creation of $3 trillion in currency? Inflation for sure. All these people who started with jobs and ended up on unemployment and evicted won't be able to afford to buy a home, as inflation causes prices to go up. The people who lost their cars won't be able to afford as good of a car. People won't be able to afford to send kids to college as those prices rise. Everything gets more expensive when governments print massive amounts of money. One has to only look to Venezuela to see where that path ends.

Who benefits from the stimulus, quantitative easing? Again, governments and the biggest businesses benefit the most. Who benefits from inflation? People who have assets that will rise in value, such as real estate and stocks. The people who lose their homes during this will see those homes bought up by massive corporations or wealthy people and turned into rentals they can't afford. Most of the people who live in this country will be harmed by these government policies, harmed in a way they may never recover from in their lifetimes.

On the topic of finances, I strongly recommend you listen to this interview with Jeff Booth. It really talks to the realities of bailouts and where the path leads.

The fix for all of this is going to do a tremendously greater amount of harm than the virus itself. By being compliant we support that harm. We should instead choose the path of peaceful non-compliance. History has shown that is the best way to enact positive change.

There is an upside though! People have been the best. Every day people have become more kind and caring to their neighbors. People are making masks to donate to hospitals. People are pitching in to help with family members. This disaster has really brought out the best in so many people. It's a shame that the lion's share of the disaster was created by government and media actions to benefit huge companies and the ultra-wealthy.

Pull together folks, we'll beat this.